Appreciating Genius
by KaitieD
Summary: Steve works for an insurance company and has to check out the flood damage in a customer's apartment. What he finds there is certainly...different.


Steve stopped to lean against the wall, winded after climbing up five flights of stairs. He set his briefcase down for a moment, caught his breath, and straightened his tie. Feeling a little more put together, he headed down the corridor, peering at the apartment numbers in the dim light.

He was relieved that this was his last stop of the day, but wished it could have been in a better neighborhood. The building was shabby and run-down, with the occasional boarded up window and broken glass. The front door lock and intercom system looked as though it hadn't worked in a decade and the lobby smelled of mildew.

 _Just one more hour_ , Steve promised himself, _then two whole days off until you're back at it Monday morning._ It wasn't that he disliked his job, it just wasn't where he imagined he'd at this point in his life. Recently graduated from college, he had thought he'd be working for some non-profit making a difference in the world. Instead, he had to spend all day trudging from house to house to do inspections for insurance claims.

Finally he came upon apartment he'd been looking for, 7E. As he approached the door, he could feel the carpet squelch under his shoes. _Definitely the right place_ , he thought, knowing that this call was due to broken water pipe in the apartment above. Steve took a deep breath, preparing himself for the worst. People never wanted to deal with him or argue over what their insurance covered, not that he blamed them, but it did tend to make them unpleasant.

Knocking loudly, Steve took a step back, making sure he'd be able to be seen through the peephole. He didn't hear anyone approaching and was about to knock again when he heard a loud crash followed by some muffled curses.

"Hang on!"

The door swung open and Steve blinked in surprise. He'd gone over the occupant's list of damaged items and from the technological nonsense he'd read, he had expected some sort of mad scientist or nutty professor type. Instead it was a young guy, maybe a few years older than him. His dark hair was shaggy, hanging into his eyes, but his goatee was neatly kept. He wore jeans and a stained white tank, and appeared to have goggle imprints around his eyes. Handsome, with just a touch of the mad scientist.

"Hey" he said, reaching out his hand. "Tony Stark, thanks for coming."

"Steve Rogers, from Hartford Insurance Group, nice to meet you" Steve said, shaking Tony's hand firmly. "So, I believe you've experienced some water damage?"

"Yeah, you could say that" Tony said with a wry smile and roll of his eyes. He stepped back, letting Steve enter the apartment to take a look around. He could see the water stains down the walls, buckets still collecting a random drip here and there, and towels soaking up the leftover water from under couches and tables.

"Yikes" Steve said, wincing in sympathy. "That's quite a bit of water."

"Tell me about it. Unfortunately neither one of us was home at the time" he said, gesturing to the neighbor upstairs, "so no one noticed until it got to the floor below me."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Mr. Stark –"

"Tony, please."

"Ok, Tony" Steve said, lifting up his briefcase. He looked for somewhere to set it down so he could pull out all the paperwork, but every flat surface seemed to be covered. Stacks of papers, blueprints, tools and bits of machinery…he wasn't sure what most of the stuff was.

"Oh, sorry" Tony said, shoving aside some papers. He managed to clear off a small space on the kitchen counter. "You can put your stuff down here. I'd love to say it's not always like this, but…it is." He shot Steve a sheepish grin and shrugged.

"Alright, well" Steve began, pulling out Tony's file, "The company has gone over your claims, but due to…well, the fact that no one knows what this stuff is…they sent me out to clear things up a little."

Tony smirked. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Ok, shoot. What do you need to know?"

"I guess" Steve said, looking around the apartment, "maybe it would be easiest if you took me around and showed me everything that you sent in a claim for." Everywhere he looked there seemed to be a workbench, end table, or desk set up, covered in papers and metal bits. There appeared to be a robot of some sort in one corner, a chemistry set in another, and multiple computer screens set up just off the kitchen.

"I apologize in advance" Tony said, leading him over to the largest work area, situated right in the middle of what should have been the living room. "I've always got a lot going on."

Steve trailed behind, his eyes drawn to Tony's arms, watching the muscles flex as he pointed out different pieces of equipment. "Must drive your girlfriend crazy, huh?" Steve asked.

"Nah, there's no – anybody. This can be a lot for someone to put up with" he said. "Or so I've been told."

Gesturing to a tangle of wires and lights jumbled together, he explained "This is a prototype for a sunrise alarm clock. I'm using LEDs and added a button; I'm going for minimal controls so the input isn't too far from complete."

He started untangling the mass and pointing to various bits. "Right now, there's two settings: hours in 1 hour increments to 12, and minutes in 5 minute increments to 60. Each successful setting has a color confirmation, hour is red and minute is green. The alarm starts about 30 minutes before and goes from soft orange, to yellow, to bright white if you don't reset it in time."

Looking up, he caught the dumbfounded look on Steve's face before he could hide it. "Sorry, I get excited about this stuff. I know no one else really cares." His face fell a little, the enthusiasm gone.

"No, no" Steve said, feeling bad, "it sounds like it's going to be great. I'm just not really good with technology. I wish I was, it would be amazing to be able to do stuff like this. Instead of shuttling about town with a briefcase full of paperwork." He curled his lip and nodded at the briefcase behind them on the counter, making Tony laugh. Steve was glad to see him to perk back up a little.

"Yeah? Well if you really are interested, I've got some cooler stuff over here." Moving on to the desk set up in front of the window, he held up a device. "This is a multifunctional power battery I'm working on; it'll essentially be a source of clean energy. I've also been using it to work with charged particles. By increasing their density and directing them with magnets, you could theoretically channel them into blasts that could be used as offensive weaponry."

"Is that why, uh…" Steve asked, pointing to a small, blackened hole in the wall next to the window.

Tony let out an embarrassed laugh. "Yeah, looks like it'll work though, right?"

"I guess so. Impressive."

Steve followed Tony as he bolted over to the lab setup, jabbering excitedly as his explanations picked up steam.

"This is what I've really been into lately" he said, tapping a few keys on a laptop before shutting it and tossing it onto the couch behind them. Scooting a couple beakers and test tubes around, he pointed to various chemicals, naming them for Steve.

"I've been doing some work with palladium, using it as a power source for the battery I was showing you earlier, but it's burning out too quickly and I can't seem to find anything that can do the job like I need it to. So, basically, I've been working on creating a new element that will function better."

"You can do that? I mean, just make up a new element?"

"Well it's not easy, obviously" Tony said, nodding towards the overflowing garbage can at his feet. Balls of paper spilled out onto the floor and he gave one a kick. "I've been working on it for a while now. Even have the name picked out, if it ever happens."

"Oh yeah? What's it going to be?"

"Badassium"

Steve just stared at him, unable to tell if he was joking or not. Tony stared back seriously for a second, before breaking into a grin. "Just messing with you. I mean, I do want to name it that, but apparently 'the scientific community won't accept it'" he said, making mocking air quotes with his fingers.

"Too bad, that would be…well, badass" Steve said with a laugh.

"Right?!"

Steve bent over the table to look at the scribbled formulas on a piece of scrap paper when he bumped into it, knocking over a beaker filled with a blue liquid.

"Oh, shit! I'm so sorry" Steve apologized, looking for something to clean up the mess with.

"Don't worry about it. Dum-E, you're on clean-up" he called out. Steve looked around, confused. Suddenly the robot-looking thing he had spotted earlier whirred to life, rolling over to where they stood. Steve stepped back, looking at it warily.

"Steve, this is Dum-E, he's my buddy. Made him back in high school and we've been together ever since." An arm-like appendage reached out and began mopping up the mess. "He's not great at higher-functioning tasks, but he makes himself useful" Tony said, patting it affectionately.

"That's amazing" Steve said admiringly, walking in a circle around Dum-E, watching it do its work.

"So, I guess we've hit most of the high points…"

Steve tore his eyes away from the incredible inventions and looked over to Tony. "Ok, well" he said with a sigh, "we still have to go over the application for reimbursement item by item."

"You're the boss" Tony said with a wink. "J.A.R.V.I.S., can you print me out a copy of the insurance forms I sent in. Should still be in my sent mail."

"Of course, sir" came of voice from out of nowhere, making Steve jump. He whirled around, looking for the source, but saw nothing. He looked over at Tony, wide-eyed.

"That's J.A.R.V.I.S." he said, "J.A.R.V.I.S., meet Steve Rogers."

"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Rogers" the voice said politely. Steve just stared at the ceiling.

"Um, nice to meet you too."

Tony watched the exchange with a satisfied smirk. "One of my coolest accomplishments, I think. I know that we already have Siri, Alexa, and all that, but J.A.R.V.I.S. is completely different. He's a more sophisticated, multifunctional assistant. He's already capable of holding conversations and I'm in the process of upgrading him with the ability to express real emotions and he'll be the most advanced A.I. around right now."

Steve was speechless, still staring into space as if J.A.R.V.I.S. would suddenly appear in a physical form.

"C'mon man" Tony said, taking Steve by the arm and leading him over to the couch. "I usually break people much earlier in the tour" he said, laughing lightly.

Steve shook his head little, clearing it. "No, I'm good" he said, feeling a little embarrassed. "It's just a lot to take in, but it's incredible. You have all this awesome stuff, why…" he trailed off, not wanting to say something insulting.

"Why am I in this rat-trap apartment?"

"Well – yeah, kinda" Steve said with an apologetic shrug.

"No worries. I could have sold off a lot of this stuff, but everyone wants the intellectual rights and everything that goes along with that. And I don't want to give up control of them. They're like my babies, I guess."

Steve nodded.

"You probably think that's stupid."

"Not at all. You came up with these crazy wonderful ideas and then actually make them work! Sure, making money off them would probably be great, but they're yours, you shouldn't have to just give them up to make a living.

Tony gave him a warm smile, feeling like Steve really understood him.

"You want a drink?"

"Sure, why not?"

The printer next to the couch started humming, papers sliding out and fluttering to the floor. "I'm just gonna grab those, go help yourself to whatever's in the fridge" Tony said, waving vaguely in the direction of the kitchen.

Steve headed over, pulling open the refrigerator door and marveling at the empty white expanse of nothing. Well, almost nothing. There were three bottles of Corona, a carton of eggs, one slice of American cheese and a bottle of mustard. Just out of curiosity, he pulled open the freezer to see if maybe that was where all the food was hiding. But no, that was even emptier. Just an ice cube tray with only two cubes in it, and a lone Hot Pocket that was so encrusted with ice, it had clearly been in there awhile.

Grabbing two of the beers, Steve opened them before walking back over and handing one to Tony, who took a long drink. "Thanks."

"So, not to be nosy, but you do still have to eat right?"

Tony quirked an eyebrow at him questioningly.

"I just thought with all your genius inventions, maybe you were living off food pellets or something. Because from the looks of the fridge, you can't be surviving on actual food."

"Har har, funny" Tony said with a laugh. "I get a little wrapped up in this stuff. So I mostly live off coffee and energy drinks. Pretty sure my body is 93% caffeine at this point."

He waved a stack of papers listing every bit of machinery that had been damaged by the flood from upstairs. "I've got my list, if you want to start going over them, I can point out each piece. Might take a while though, I was very…thorough."

Steve stared at the pages, knowing that it would probably take hours to get through all of it. Tony look at him ruefully. "Sorry, I know this isn't how you want to spend your Friday night…"

"No, it's not" Steve said, seeing the surprise on Tony's face.

"I'm sorry –"

"No, that's not what I meant. I mean no, I definitely don't want to go through all of that, no matter how interesting you make it seem."

His stomach fluttered nervously at the small smile that played at the corner of Tony's lips.

"What I meant was, seeing as you probably haven't eaten in…however long, how 'bout I take you out for some real food? You can tell me about what other crazy stuff you have around here."

Tony just looked at him for a moment, considering. Steve started to regret asking, wondering if he'd overstepped.

"Sure, sounds great" Tony finally answered. "But what about these?" he asked, shaking the papers in the air towards Steve.

"Consider them signed off on. I believe you, and trust me, no one's going to want to go through all that mess to challenge the claims."

"Super, let me just put on some shoes and we can hit the road."

"Great, I'll just pack up my stuff."

Together they walked toward the door, which Tony opened, letting Steve walk out in front of him. Pulling the door closed behind them, he stopped, popping his head back inside.

"Dum-E, clean this place up while I'm gone!"

Locking the door, they headed off down the hallway to the stairs.

"So what are we having?"


End file.
